There is a much richer experience available to you than just building yet another productivity habit
When you feel angry for seemingly no reason, it’s not because you’re a bad person. More likely, it’s a reflection of your past experience. The same goes for jealousy, laziness, sluggishness, and all the other feelings that stop you from loving yourself.
To really see this for yourself requires a high level of self-awareness — or, a conscious relationship with yourself. That’s what self-awareness is, in a nutshell: an ongoing awareness of the self and of how you behave towards it.
I’ve recently become a bit bitter about self-improvement. Or at least, about that part of it that positions “positive…
Building self-awareness resembles building a house. Here’s how to find the bricks, cement, tools, and architectural design to construct one that’s uniquely yours
Self-awareness is such a complex idea. We all want to improve it, but many find it hard to unpack the concept. What does it mean to be self-aware?
Over the past few years, I’ve explored this question from many angles. At first, self-awareness seemed to be a primarily spiritual endeavor. I discovered that all my experiences, at any given moment, can be used as raw material for discovering my essence, i.e., that part of my consciousness that remains unchanging.
Even now when I write these words, I feel chills of excitement.
As I kept meditating and exploring other self-awareness techniques…
When people sit in a circle, they can see what used to be hidden.
On the last Full Moon, I did it again.
I know I shouldn’t have. The current limits on social gatherings are still quite strict. Yet, the promise of what we would create together was much greater than the perceived risk.
(Note: Although the gathering was bigger than allowed, we did follow social distancing rules and met outdoors.)
Under the cover of the night but with the guidance of the Moon, ten women went into the forest to sit around the fire. Each made her way through the darkness and to the sacred space. There, we knew we could feel safe…
“Couples who run together, stay together” isn’t just a pretty slogan. It’s also backed by science.
When I met my boyfriend a little over a year ago, one of the first things we did was going for a run. Little did I know we’d end up living together a few months later.
Since the beginning, running has been our way of connecting with each other and tapping into childlike joy. Although we share many other interests, running is among our top ways of bonding, boosting our moods, and mutual affection.
Sure, we’ve also had tough runs. Like any couple, we don’t always vibe perfectly. For one thing, he’s much faster and fitter which means I often…
How to include others in your practice — even if they’re not as mindful as you
When most people hear about mindfulness, they picture a person sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. But solitary practice is just one step of this journey.
It’s fairly easy to be mindful alone. All you’re working with are your own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors. And while facing those can certainly be a challenge, that challenge is taken to the next level when you try to stay mindful while interacting with others.
At some point, you’ll want to use your mindfulness skills to better connect with people around you. This gets particularly tricky when they aren’t as mindful as you…
How self-improvement might be ruining your relationships
One of the most dangerous self-improvement tips I became obsessed with is this:
If you want to grow, you need to surround yourself with the “right” kind of people.
This is such a sneaky one. On the surface, this statement looks harmless. Of course you should surround yourself with people who support your growth. Why wouldn’t you? You deserve better than to hang out with those who drain your energy.
We all want to have inspiring, uplifting, and interesting friends and acquaintances. …
It’s hard to move forward if you’re not happy with where you are.
Today, many people feel pressured to build extraordinary lives. It’s nothing new or strange. Once you have your basic needs covered, the obvious next step is to look for ways to thrive.
But this may turn against you before you know it. If you become obsessed with creating a better life, this can blind you to what you already have.
Ordinary life becomes impossible to enjoy when you constantly think of ways to upgrade it.
Sure, it’s exciting to work towards some big vision. I’m not saying you shouldn’t.
But what’s the point if it takes away from the joy…
Your dream career could be about picking the lesser evil
I’ll be honest with you. Even though working for myself had always been my dream, recently, I’ve been finding it exhausting.
It got to a point where I hit the wall. I had to take a long break. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in freelancing or entrepreneurship, you probably know the challenges I’m talking about:
- Too many tasks to handle on any given day
- Cluelessness about how to prioritize those tasks
- Ongoing uncertainty about how much you’ll earn next month
- Frustration at having more ideas than you can handle
- Isolation because of too much time spent alone in front…
Running with others can give you perspective on how to approach relationships
How you run is usually a great metaphor for how you live your life. The way you exert effort, motivate yourself when you're tired, interact with your breath, decide when to slow down and when to speed up — all these elements may reflect how you do other things outside of running.
Then there’s the next level: running with others.
For most of my life, I ran alone. But over the last year, this changed. With lockdown restrictions, running together has been one of the safe outdoor ways of socializing. …
Here’s what can happen when you infuse your practice with Western cultural baggage
Mindfulness has established itself as a personal growth technique in the West. We think we understand what it’s all about.
But sometimes, I wonder: do we actually know what we’re doing when we practice mindfulness?
The truth is, your knowledge of mindfulness is probably incomplete. Mine certainly is, too, even though I spent the past five years exploring the caveats of my mind, studying mindfulness at university, and sitting in all kinds of meditation circles. What are we missing? …
